1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image processing systems are known in which apparatuses, such as a scanner, a facsimile machine, a copy machine, a multifunction peripheral incorporating the functionality of these apparatuses, a personal computer (PC) and an email server, are connected with a network to execute processing cooperatively using the functions of the apparatuses. In such an image processing system, generally, a cooperative processing flow (workflow) in which the procedure of cooperative processing is defined is created in advance according to a business operation procedure. The user can utilize the functions of the system through an efficient combination of the functions by executing the created cooperative processing flow.
In the image processing system, when a change or addition is made to the services (functions) of the apparatuses on the network, it is necessary to change the already created cooperative processing flow. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-151893 proposes a technique for, in a situation as described above, allowing the user to create a new workflow with ease based on service information of the apparatuses acquired via the network.
This conventional technique, however, has the following problems. When a change is made to the functions of the apparatuses of the image processing system, for example, the cooperative processing flow needs to be changed manually to conform to the content of the change, which requires the user to perform complicated tasks. In such a situation, if the user executes the cooperative processing flow without changing it, the processing will stop midway, which reduces the processing efficiency of the image processing system.